Franco Battiato Poll

oh yeah Hugues... a nice write up I found in internet land some time back,  from some cat  who got the RPI bug.  He had this to say about Battiato. Not sure what you 'think' of Terry Riley.  But like me,  this guy thinks his work.... is far superior. Also mentions the track on the S/T album,  Cafe-Table-Musik, that alone was worth 3 stars to me (2 for the site)


ranco Battiato: Sulle corde di Aries

One can half imagine at Progressive rock meets they have heated discussions about which of Battiato's LPs are the most superior. It's probably a toss-up between this from 1973 and Clic (1974) which garnered a reissue on Island records, one of the very few feats of cross-over that Italo Prog achieved. Clic is a little too anti-septic for my now hoary tastes, and I'm suspicious of anything like Bill Bruford, Peter Gabriel or Robert Fripp's work which dons a smart suit, tidies up the synth parts and saunters into the post-punk vanguard pretending it was now trendy.

Like those mass classroom scraps you had when you were a kid, the lame thing to do when the teacher showed up was to tuck your shirt in, loiter at the back pretending you were just examining the poster with the frog-spawn on it, that in no way were you involved in any kind of debacle. The stupid kids on the other hand didn't notice the teacher had come in, might have still been brawling, perhaps one holding a dustbin in his hand. Clic is a little bit too clean and thus, even though ten years ago we might have applauded it for being presciently new-wave, now I sort of despise it for its sleek textures.

My friend, the scholar Jon Dale gets plenty of props from me, so he can field the occasional catty swipe; he loves it! Jon is something of an authority on Battiato, indeed he was the first person to play me any, but in some way I suspect this may in some way be to do with the fact that FB survived the blood-letting that was punk and went on to do records such as "Cafe-Table-Musik", which Dale incidentally loves. Dale veers away from the unacceptable horror that these Italo Prog records represent and indeed some of the stuff he recommended I check out was rather too tasteful for me. Stuff like Prima Materia recordings and the Die Schnatel label. Ah, the meta-critical, nitty-gritty, bitch-fest that is music blogging! Doncha just love it.....

"Sulle corde di Aries" is a masterpiece and an essential purchase. Franco's singing is almost in the style of a Franciscan monk layered over these harpsichord and hand-drum grooves which are drenched in echo, hand-triggered bass pulses reverberating over freely-plucked mbira. In many ways it follows the original hairy impulse of minimal music as manifested in Terry Riley records like "Persian Surgery Dervishes" but Battiato's feel for melody and harmony is infinitely superior, one finding oneself adrift on these organic, divinely lyrical tracks is as though one was drifting down-river on a makeshift raft encircled by swallows.

micky wrote: voted for Sulle Corde di Aries...since it's my favorite of that era (though I'm the only one of the RPI team to think so about that one) .. but Clic is close and love all 4. LOVE the second era...  I did a poll on  those a month or two ago.  First and Second era...  the third era is soon to come hahhaha.

darqdean wrote: Tapfret wrote: Sulle Corde di Aries and Clic will be on my next purchase list. Have to see what the Xmas damage will be first. The cool thing is Battiato's CD's are still available in the US for a reasonable price. ($10) Odd that - I'm sure a couple of months ago they were around $30 each, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw how cheap they were yesterday and with the exchange-rate going in my favour at the moment they are a bargain...

Tapfret wrote: Sulle Corde di Aries and Clic will be on my next purchase list. Have to see what the Xmas damage will be first. The cool thing is Battiato's CD's are still available in the US for a reasonable price. ($10)

when you do get them.. I'd love to know what you think. Drop me a line or dig this beast of a thread up.

Tapfret wrote: Only have Fetus and Pollution and enjoy them equally. will have to explore further before declaring any preference, but I intend to do just that.

Honestly brother... I suggest working your way up... you can hear the liner progression in his music from album to album... the progession that goes from what you hear on Fetus to .. hahahha  this...

http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=126940

and that is just the 70's work... a real gem for those who really appreciate artists who don't sit on their laurels and push the limits of artistic expression.

I have to strongly recommend the 3rd. Sulle Corde di Aries.  You may.. you may not love it as I do. But in my very humble experience.... it is an out of body experience to listen to.  I LOVE that album.... and countless.. .countless listens have done nothing.. but make that feeling even stronger

darqdean wrote: ^ I do listen to peoples recommendations, (especially when I've specifically asked for them), it just takes me a very long time to do anything about it

hahahha. .same here

darqdean wrote: micky wrote: darqdean wrote: micky wrote: voted for Sulle Corde di Aries...since it's my favorite of that era (though I'm the only one of the RPI team to think so about that one) .. it's the only one I've heard, but think it is amazingly good. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I've been meaning to ask you what you thought of it This thread has just prompted me to move it from my Amazon wish list to the shopping basket. Added Il Sogno by Zauber and s/t by Saint Just to the order at the same time (been meaning to get some female vocalled RPI for a while now).

oohhhh.. good choices...   

Battiato is a superb musician and songwriter - I saw him live in the early Eighties, just as he was starting to have widespread success as a 'pop' artist. As someone wrote in an earlier post, his pop output is living proof that pop is not necessarily a dirty word, even for a hardcore progger. I would heartily recommend those Eighties albums to anyone who loves good music - and understanding some Italian would be a bonus, since his lyrics are really something special.

micky wrote: voted for Sulle Corde di Aries...since it's my favorite of that era (though I'm the only one of the RPI team to think so about that one) ..

memowakeman wrote: I sitll prefer pollution